Verbs in the Present

► [NOTE: The text includes sections that are absent from the video.]

Thus far, we have covered a ton of ways to speak about yourself as well as the people and things in your life and surroundings. But we have not seen a single Bambara verb!

(NOTE: Yes, we saw qualitative "verbs" earlier but they are nothing like the "normal" verbs, we'll cover here.)

In this chapter, we'll finally get into them so you can say things like "I am from America" or "I don't speak French."

In English, we say that such sentences are in the "present" tense. In Bambara, and Manding in general, linguists tend to say they are "imperfective", which basically means "inaccomplished." Use whichever one helps you remember best!

Specifically, I'll cover how to use verbs in the present tense in the following forms:

• intransitively (e.g., "I go")
• negative intransitively (e.g., "I don't go")
• transitively (e.g., "I speak Bambara)")

(NOTE: This chapter uses a decent amount of technical grammar vocabulary. If you are overwhelmed, try these tips.)

Intransitive

When a verb is used intransitively that means that it has no direct object: take an English sentence such as "I go", for instance.

If we wanted to say this in Bambara, we would do it as follows with the verb taa ('go'):

N bɛ taa

'I go'

The second word above, bɛ, looks like something that we know, but it's actually a distinct word. The first bɛ that we encountered earlier was the copula of situative sentences such as:

N bɛ so.

'I am (located) at home.'

The bɛ in N bɛ taa is historically related, but distinct. It has nothing to do with location. Instead, it is an auxiliary or helper word (linguists often call it a predicate marker) that allows us to use a verb in the present (or "imperfective") tense:

N bɛ taa
I PRESENT go

'I go'

The predicate marker bɛ will never change forms. Neither will the verb. There are no different "conjugations" to memorize like in English, French or Spanish.

Moreover, word order is fixed; it's always SUBJECT + bɛ + VERB.

For instance:

U bɛ taa.
They PRESENT go

'They go.'

Or:

Adama bɛ kuma.
Adama PRESENT speak

'Adama speaks.'

With this in mind, how could we say something like, "I am from America"? Well, we start with the verb bɔ (or ka bɔ in citation form; see below), which literally means something like 'exit; come out of' or sortir if you are familiar with French. Now we can say the following:

N bɛ bɔ Ameriki.
I PRESENT come.out.of America

'I am from America.'

(NOTE: N bɛ bɔ Ameriki is an intransitive sentence despite the presence of Ameriki. As you will see below, direct objects appear before verbs!)

Negative intransitive

To make any sentence negative, all we need to do is replace bɛ with a word that looks like many other negation words that we've seen: tɛ.

For instance:

N tɛ taa
I PRESENT.NEG go

"I don't go/leave"

Or:

U tɛ bɔ Faransi
They PRESENT.NEG come.out.of France

"They aren't from France." (lit. 'They don't come out of France')

Transitive

If you'd like to build a sentence or use a verb that requires a direct object (that is, a verb that is transitive), the same rules apply, but you'll need to insert the direct object between the predicate marker (or "auxiliary") bɛ or tɛ and the verb.

For instance:

N bɛ bamanankan fɔ.
I PRESENT Bambara say

'I speak Bambara.'

Or:

Kadija bɛ ji min.
Kadija PRESENT water drinks

'Kadija drinks water'.

To make things negative, you keep the same structure, but switch bɛ to tɛ:

Sara tɛ tubabukan mɛn
Sara PRESENT.NEG French hear

'Sara doesn't understand French.'

Or:

I tɛ mɔgɔ fo.
You PRESENT.NEG people greet

"You don't greet people"

(as in, "You don't say hi [and therefore aren't respectful of others]")

(NOTE: As you can see, direct objects appear before verbs. This is why the sentence N bɛ bɔ Ameriki is intransitive. We cannot say N bɛ Ameriki bɔ to say 'I come from America.'

► Citation form and the infinitive marker ka

Now that you have finally been introduced to verbs, we need to also take a step back to look at how people talk about verbs. Let me explain.

When people speak, Bambara verbs—like those of English—are typically given in a specific citation form that includes the infinitive marker ka.

This is almost identical to the way in English, we cite verbs using the helper word "to": e.g., "to exit", "to speak", etc. For instance:

– How do you say "to go" in Bambara?
– 'Ka taa'

Or if you were asking from Bambara into English:

– "Ka taa" kɔrɔ ko di?
– 'To go'

The one difference is that in Bambara, citation forms can differentiate between intransitive usage (that is, without a direct object, e.g., "to go") and transitive usage (that is, with a direct object; e.g., "to say something").

If a verb is intransitive then the citation form is ka + VERB. For instance:

ka taa

'to go'

If a verb is transitive then the citation form is k'à + VERB. This comes from the fuller ka à + VERB, where ka is the infinitive marker and à ('it') stands in for direct object. For instance:

k'à fɔ

'to say something'

Later in your Bambara studies, you'll see why this distinction is important. For now, let's just say that you should learn your verb vocab in citation form using ka or k'à so that you know whether a verb is typically used intransitively or transitively.

► "To Like", "To Have" and "To Want"?

In this chapter, I've introduced a few verbs and you'll learn more in the vocab list below.

You'll notice that you will not see some of the most common English language verbs:

• to like
• to have
• to want

Why not?

This is because none of these things are expressed with normal verbs in Bambara/Jula (or Manding in general). Instead, they are represented by constructions that literally translate into things like the following:

• "It is pleasing to me" → to like
• "It is on my hand" → to have
• "I am beside it" → to want

Don't worry! The actual constructions in Bambara/Jula aren't complicated and you'll get there soon enough.

(NOTE: If you can't wait and want to take a peek, check out the more advanced Grammar chapters for "To Like" or "To Have".)

Summary

Ayiwa! We covered the following:

• Imperfective or "present tense" sentences use the following structure:

  SUJ + bɛ/tɛ + (DIR.OBJ) + VERB

  • Intransitively

    SUJ + bɛ/tɛ + VERB
    

  • Transitively

    SUJ + bɛ/tɛ + DIR.OBJ + VERB
    

• We can ask or say where we are from using the verb ka bɔ ('to exit'):

  N bɛ bɔ Ameriki

  'I am from America'

  (lit. 'I come out of America')

• We use the verbs k'à fɔ ('to say something') and k'à mɛn ('to hear something') to express the ideas of speaking and understanding a language, respectively.

  For instance:

  I bɛ anglais-kan fɔ wa?

  'Do you speak English?'

  (lit. 'Do you say English?')

  Or:

  Musa fa tɛ bamanankan mɛn

  'Musa's father doesn't understand Bambara'

  (lit. 'Musa's father doesn't hear Bambara')

• Bambara verbs are given in citation form using the infinitive marker ka
  • Intransitive: ka + VERB (e.g., ka taa 'to go')
  • Transitive: k'à + VERB (e.g., k'à fɔ 'to say something' ['to say it'] or ka mɔgɔ fo 'to greet someone' [lit. 'to greet a person'])